[01] ND will lead the country out of the crisis with a 'different policy
mix', Mitsotakis says

[02] Amnesty International: Refugees at risk of freezing on Greek islands
due to 'inhuman EU policies'

[01] ND will lead the country out of the crisis with a 'different policy
mix', Mitsotakis says

The next government will be that of New Democracy, which will
successfully lead the country out of the crisis by adopting a different
policy mix, main opposition ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on
Thursday, in a meeting with local government officials and business
people on the island of Kos.

"A condition for this is that we escape from the vice of populism,"
Mitsotakis added, stressing that ND will not make promises that it cannot
keep. "We will leave behind us the days of easy promises, the long lists
of measures and actions that, as a rule, are never implemented. Those
few things that we say, we will turn into action," he said.

Mitsotakis said that growth would come from the private sector and not a
state sector bloated with new hirings, as in the past, while ND's policy
will be to lower taxes and trim spending in the state sector. He also
emphasised tourism, which he said was an essential element of growth in
Greece, calling for targeted policies and the development of alternative
forms of tourism.

Among others, he welcomed the concession of 14 regional airports in
Greece to an international consortium as a very positive development
and referred to the refugee and migration problem, where he claimed the
present government had been proved "inadequate". He stopped short of
promising that the hotspot on Kos will close, however, noting that its
existence was foreseen by the agreement between Greece and the EU.

[02] Amnesty International: Refugees at risk of freezing on Greek islands
due to 'inhuman EU policies'

In a strongly-worded announcement on Thursday, Amnesty International
blamed "inhuman EU policies" for trapping refugees on Greek islands where
they risked freezing to death in the snow. Since the EU-Turkey agreement
was signed in March, the organisation noted, European leaders had been
"warehousing" asylum seekers on Greek islands so that they could send
them back to Turkey.

"Shocking images of men, women and children surviving in snow-covered
tents, in below-zero temperatures, are a black stain our collective
conscience and reflect the human cost of the EU-Turkey agreement. Amnesty
International's mission to the Greek islands in December showed that
the current dismal conditions should have been predicted and measures
taken to avoid them," an Amnesty press release said.

In addition to mistakenly considering that the rights of these people
would be respected in Turkey, the returns had also not taken place in the
way that EU leaders expected, Amnestry International Greece researcher
Lia Gogou pointed out, leading to overcrowding, increased concern and
lost hopes.

"At this time and at these below-zero temperatures, human lives are at
serious risk. For this reason, the Greek Section of Amnesty International
asks European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Greek Prime
Minister Alexis Tsipras to take immediate action and, more specifically,
to make human lives and top priority and work with the governments of
other EU member-states to take the refugees off Greek islands to other
European countries."

The UN's refugee agency evacuated dozens of refugees and migrants from
the makeshift camp in Vayiohori, central Macedonia, and transferred
them to hotels in the municipality of Thessaloniki, the agency said.

"The last 16 people were transferred by the UN refugee agency to hotels in
the municipality of Thessaloniki," an agency spokeswoman, Stella Nanou,
told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), adding that another 28 people
were transferred by bus on Wednesday and the center is now empty.

The people who lived in Vayiohori were from Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria,
Morocco and Algeria. Asked about how the camp will be used now, Nanou
said it will be decided by the competent authorities.